Combination Surgery of Silicone Tube Intubation and Conjunctival Resection in Patients with Epiphora

PURPOSE: To compare the success rates of performing only silicone tube intubation versus carrying out both conjunctival resection and silicone tube intubation. METHODS: The subjects of this study involved 62 patients (96 eyes) between October 2015 and May 2017 who were diagnosed as having punctal stricture or nasolacrimal duct stenosis. Out of 96 eyes, 47 underwent only silicone tube intubation, and 49 underwent both silicone tube intubation and conjunctival resection. Three parameters were measured at 1, 3, and 6 months after the surgery: the area of the tear meniscus using RTVue-100 anterior segment optical coherence tomography, the height of the tear meniscus using a slit lamp microscope, and the subjective satisfaction of patients as a result of improved sympotms like epiphora. The surgery was considered successful when the patients' experienced the resolution of symptoms and reduction of the area and height of the tear meniscus. RESULTS: The area of the tear meniscus, height of the tear meniscus, and subjective satisfaction of patients was superior in the group that underwent both silicone tube intubation and conjunctival resection compared silicone tube intubation only. Based on these results, the success rate of the surgery was 68.9% in the group that underwent only silicone tube intubation and 78.7% in the group that underwent both silicone tube intubation and conjunctival resection. CONCLUSIONS: The resection of relaxed plica semilunares seems to increase the success rate of silicone tube intubation through the reduction of the area and height of the tear meniscus. Therefore, after determining the degree of conjunctivochalasis, if it was found to be severe, a combination with conjunctival resection was expected to increase the success rate of the surgery.